Internal strength (3)
	Internal work/whole body strength

classes     qigong     tai chi     kung fu     about us     reviews     a-z

3. Whole-body power using whole-body movement and whole-body strength

This third and final level of internal strength pertains to the use of jing. The student considers the permutations of jing, yin/yang and other concerns.
The 13 methods are combined and explored through the study of jing. Jing represents a journey into the use of mind to influence the physical and serves to prepare the student for the syllabus ahead.


Keeping it real

Every jing is the product of the way in which you move your body. By turning the hips, flexing the spine, shifting the weight and adjusting the limbs - you produce an outcome.
There is nothing spectacular about this. Students should be wary of talking about 'qi'. Can you prove that qi produced the outcome? Perhaps there is a more simple, straightforward reason?
 

In order to be soft, you must first relax. In order to be relaxed, your joints must first loosen. When your joints are loose, you can move your body as one unit and manifest your jing like a soft whip.

(Yang Jwing-Ming)

Introducing jing

The early grades teach you to express jing in a more or less random manner.
It is hard enough to project power in the first place without worrying about which jing it is and how the different expressions should feel.
All we ask is that a student project energy in an effective way into somebody else. Form(s), stick drills, knife drills and various partnered exercises train the body to generate and employ kinetic energy.


13 methods

The 13 methods are the first step towards refining and channelling jing. To harness your ability to deliver effectively and deliberately, you must understand how a certain movement produces energy.
You must move past a random sense of jing and be very specific.


8 powers

The 8 powers are your initial concern: wardoff, rollback, push, squeeze, pluck, split, elbow and shoulder/bump.
Each one is generated by a physical movement but the effect of that movement is also energetic, not just physical. Your body stops at a certain point, and the effect continues.


Advanced

An advanced student recognises that tai chi teaches a student how to store and release kinetic energy using a wide variety of methods.
Once you can project jing using the art, you must find ways to do it during partner work, form practice and combat.


Less overt

The student focuses upon creating dynamic tension within the soft tissues of the body. Less and less effort must be made with each action. The sense of physicality must diminish.


Fluid

The body is still performing complex physical movements. However, your degree of muscular tension has reduced to such an extent that you can barely even feel your body move.
The resistance, the blockages are gone. Your body feels oiled and smooth. Fluid. Every movement you make is an opportunity to practice cultivating and generating jing.


Internalising

Consider: when you speak, there are a whole series of internal processes involved - complex openings and closings within your body. Yet, your only interest is in the words themselves.
The words are sounds, shaped and projected by an internal mechanism. Sound energy is launched from your body. Jing is like this.
The more internally skilled you become, the less apparent the physical mechanism involved.
 

To withdraw is then to release, to release it is necessary to withdraw.

(Wu Yu-hsiang)
 

school database

Page created 18 April 2005
Last updated 16 June 2023

▲